Students at Pleasant Valley High School are constantly busy with sports, clubs, jobs, rigorous schoolwork, and more. Yet, Pleasant Valley is still one of the most highly acclaimed schools in the state of Iowa. How can such an academically successful school be so high performing in this many areas? With the course loads and extracurriculars that students take on, time is extremely valuable.
Is there a correlation between kids whose academic performance is high and do at least one extracurricular? Pleasant Valley High School senior Susan Anil has chosen to take challenging classes along with several extracurriculars. Among her most difficult classes are: AP Calculus, AP Spanish, and Honors Anatomy and Physiology. Anil is also involved in Spartan Assembly, the National Honors Society Executive teams, chamber choir, the school service learning board, and track and field.
In regards to a typical night after school, Anil said, “I’ll get home at 7 after meeting with our advisers and executive team and then I have to hop in the shower, eat, and then it’s like 8 o’clock and I have to do the homework for all my AP and honors classes so it takes up a lot of time.”
Anil’s busy schedule forces her to be skilled in time management and organization, skills which are very important to a productive outcome. She said, “When I’m in track season, I am always a little bit more productive because there is less time to do things. I think being busy can be healthy in a certain way to the extent that you feel the need to be more productive and get your work done.”
Another senior student, Maya McClain, began becoming involved in more extracurriculars, school related and not school related, in her junior year of high school. Throughout the week and weekend she works at Coffee Hound, a local coffee shop near the high school, is involved in Honors Journalism and is an editor in chief for the Pleasant Valley High School yearbook. Photography is one of her top hobbies and devotes a lot of time to it.
McClain said, “Last year was when I really started getting busy and adding more responsibilities onto my plate. These past two years, I have had to become good at multitasking in order to balance my photography, school, and social life. I have become pretty good at it and it’s helped me get what I need to get done while still being able to hang out with friends.”
McClain understands the importance of keeping balance in life, so she puts emphasis on spending time with friends and family, devoting herself to the things she loves such as photography, and keeping her grades up. She plans to attend the University of Missouri to major in journalism.
Her tips to maintaining a healthy balance revolve around the idea of staying motivated throughout the different activities and utilizing time management. She said, “What helps the most is making good use of the time I get. In study halls or when we aren’t doing much in class, I try to get as much done in school as I can.”
Just as many other Pleasant Valley High School students believe, Anil states that it is good to keep herself busy in order to maintain a productive flow. She said, “ I’d like to think I’d be productive if I was not involved in many extracurriculars but I’d probably go home, eat, and watch some TV and then eventually get around to my homework; I don’t think I’d be productive”
Spartan Nation continues to exemplify productive, well-balanced, and intelligent students. Getting involved is never the wrong answer; it will hold immense amounts of benefits.
